World Archery (WA) has declared as invalid the two Archery Association of India (AAI) elections held in Delhi and Chandigarh on June 9 and has served an ultimatum that the Indian federation will be suspended in case its internal issues are not resolved by the end of July.
In a recent meeting held in Den Bosch, the WA Executive Board said, “None of the two elections held is considered as valid” and it would not accept representatives of both factions as legal representatives of AAI.
WA deactivated India’s member association account for modification of entries as India did not have any legal representation in the world body.
Strict guidelines
It also listed strict guidelines for making changes to the country’s final entries for World Cup Stage IV in Berlin (July 1-7) and Tokyo test event (July 11-18) and for accepting entries for the World youth championships in Madrid (August 19-25).
WA will monitor the situation until July 31 and will wait for the Supreme Court’s order regarding the elections before re-examining the outcome.
Athletes may suffer
“If at the end of July there is no clear decision, WA will suspend the AAI and will not allow any Indian athlete to participate at any WA event with National team participation.
This would particularly apply for the Asian archery championships (an Olympic qualifying event in Bangkok) and the Asian para-archery championships (in October),” WA said in a letter addressed to various stakeholders.
“In this case, a transitory committee would be established (sic) composed of representatives of the Indian Olympic Association (IOA), Sports Ministry and one representative of the two factions and chaired by the IOA” with the goal of holding new elections (at a neutral place) as soon as possible and handling transitional matters.
WA, which had sent a representative to mediate and sort out the issue of two elections, had earlier said that in case of AAI’s suspension, Indian archers could compete only under the international federation’s flag.
Waiting for SC order
While the Arjun Munda faction said it would wait for the outcome of the Supreme Court order, the B.V.P. Rao faction sought the Prime Minister’s intervention to resolve the issue.
IOA president Narinder Batra said WA giving a timeline was “disrespectful and discourteous” towards the court.
He also alleged that the “WA is compromising with the autonomy” of AAI.
